2 - Coptic phonology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
Summary
The phonology of ancient Egyptian is most transparent in the final stage of the language, known as Coptic, which is written in a script based on the Greek alphabet with an additional eight characters derived from earlier Egyptian scripts to represent consonants not found in Greek (see below). Coptic is attested as a living language for about 1500 years, beginning in the third century ad.
Besides recording its phonology, the alphabet in which Coptic is written also reveals extensive dialectal differences in pronunciation. Coptic had six major dialects, named after the regions in which each was prevalent: Akhmimic (a), Bohairic (b), Fayumic (f), Lycopolitan (l, earlier called Subakhmimic), Oxyrhynchite (m, from its alternative names Mesokemic or Middle Egyptian), and Saidic (s). The most important of these are Saidic and Bohairic, which eventually became the dominant dialects of the Nile Valley and the Delta, respectively. Besides these, there were a number of minor dialects, as well as variants and early forms of the major ones; chief among the latter is Dialect P (p), ancestral to Saidic. Texts written in an alphabetic script prior to the appearance of Coptic also present an early stage of the language; these are known collectively as Old Coptic (o), although the term refers specifically to the script rather than the language.
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- Information
- The Ancient Egyptian LanguageAn Historical Study, pp. 11 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013